Locked On Women’s Basketball: Why Lindsay Whalen was a historic point guard prospect for the 2000s

“A lot of people who are current college basketball fans, especially given the explosion of the popularity of today’s game within recent years, probably haven’t seen her at Minnesota,” Adler said. “But you know, with the legend attached to her name, [they] have certainly heard of her exploits in college. Like … the stats are insane. What she did … after her freshman year, which is an excellent freshman year by most standards, … she put up 21 points, five rebounds, 5.5 assists and and over two steals, while shooting 60% from two and almost 36% from three, on 30% usage with a … 37% assist rate and a sub 20% turnover rate. These are absolutely insane numbers, and she got to the line like crazy. These are things that humans don’t usually do, especially in this time and era.”

Then, they discussed Whalen’s play style, in particular how she got to the rim and her trademark intricate and flashy passes.

“… She’s one of the most insane passers of all time,” Adler continued. “Like the level of flashiness that she could do on her passes was absolutely ridiculous. … the fact that she could hit those [passes], I think, made her a little too eager to try to hit them. You have these really high turnover numbers. She averages, honestly, I think, around four turnovers a game as both a junior and a senior. Which, look, Caitlin Clark had almost 10 assists a game as a junior, senior, sophomore, whatever, and had, I think, similar turnover numbers, which is one thing, but Whalen was “only” at around five and half assists, which is really a lot for [2004], but she really goes for things that you don’t want to be going for. If you’re a lead point guard, we’ll get to her [WNBA] career and these things do sort of come out in the wash, but at least from a prospect perspective, it’s not what you want to see at that age.”

Shafer then argued, “I’d rather have somebody who’s a little too loose with that … the passes that are becoming turnovers aren’t like swinging around the wing. It’s high leverage situations. It’s creating two points almost every time,” he said. “… Also noting, she loves going through on the baseline … never even looking at the rim and finding an open shooter. And the Minnesota shooters were moving well, like lifting from the corner, and they knew her tendencies, and she knew where they were going to be at all times. The floor mapping, the processing is very good … and I think I underestimated her first step.”

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Then, they discussed her pro career, including how she made her way back from Connecticut, where she was drafted, to her home state of Minnesota.

“Whalen was very open about wanting to stay in Minnesota throughout her whole college career,” Shafer said. “She’s from a small town in Minnesota, she’s a Minnesota legend, the first Gopher to ever get a bobble head, as I said earlier. … So she’s very open about wanting to be in Minnesota, wanting to play for the Lynx. And the Lynx tried really hard to get up high enough to draft her, because it was pretty much consensus among drafts, mock drafts at the time … that the top four was pretty much set in order to: [Diana Taurasi], [Alana Beard], Nicole Powell and then Whalen [at] No. 4 to Connecticut. So Minnesota ends up trading up to number six, is as high as they can get. And then they’re talking to both Charlotte at three and Connecticut at four to try to trade up. And teams are asking for picks No. 6 and No. 7 and at least another starter. And that’s what it’s going to take to move up. And the general manager at the time, [Roger Griffith], says, ‘Yeah, we can’t trade four starters for one. That’s just not a feasible way to build a good team.’ And you know, it works out for them, because in 2010 [Whalen’s] just like, ‘Okay, send me home,’ and ends up back in Minnesota anyway.”

Tune in to hear more about Whalen’s college and pro careers, and what made her so unique as a prospect at the time. Make sure to subscribe to the Locked On Women’s Basketball podcast to keep learning about the WNBA, women’s college basketball, basketball history and much more!